The Problem of Homelessness in Ukraine

The Homeless Situation

The situation with the homelessness in Ukraine is rather strained and deteriorating. Political and economic changes in Ukrainian society cause processes that lead to increase of number of homeless people. Big cities are most suffering from this problem, where a large quantity of homeless persons are concentrated as they come there for better life from different parts of Ukraine. Well-developed infrastructure of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, as well as better standards of living, make the city attractive for people looking for means of subsistence. Homeless persons are among them and the number of them is constantly increasing. The number of homeless people in different cities is decreasing or increasing depending on the season. In winter, more homeless people are looking for s shelter in large cities, in spring they move to the south, to the Black Sea coast, where they can find season work, or to the country side.

Obviously, homeless people are often forced to live this way, but a large number of homeless people have temporary, often illegal work at the black market to earn for their living. Besides, a vagrant person may have a private house in a village but is forced to leave it as he/she couldn’t get a job. A lot of villages in Ukraine with appropriate housing conditions (houses, communication, roads and so on) are almost empty because active citizens have moved to large cities searching for job.

During the Soviet times the Criminal Code contained an article according to which those individuals engaged in vagrancy (a homeless way of living), mendicancy or antisocial behavior could be held accountable for these action before a court. Usually, they were taken to a Reception Centre, which served mainly for identification purposes.

In case a homeless person hadn’t his/her personal identification documents, the officials tried to identify him/her, his/her picture was taken and he or she was given new documents. During 30 days of staying there, the authorities looked for a job or provided some job training and a place to live (usually hostels were supported by factories and enterprises). The homeless were given a special document (prescription) to go there and in order to start a new life. The police officers were responsible for supervision of this process.

The idea that Ukraine should bring its legislation closer to the European standards had resulted in withdrawal of this article from the Criminal Code. However, consequences of the economic stagnation, massive unemployment and overall poverty haven’t been taken into account. Currently, it is not the police responsibility to deal with the problem but in reality they have to work with homeless people in different way because it was practically no ones responsibility until very recently.

Among all the authorities, the police officers are best informed and aware about the problems of homeless people, thus the statistics on the homeless in Ukraine are based only on the data provided by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Police). Usually they collect the data on the number of persons who were detained and taken to the Receptions all around Ukraine. But recently the quantity the Receptions has declined sharply and there are more than 40 in number.

The mission of Receptions is first of all to identify the person detained and verify whether the person has committed any crime or not; but in reality they often have to provide services to those who address them for permanent housing, medical support or sanitary services. It is wrongly believed that all Reception Centre clients have criminal past. But according to the personal of Reception Centres only part of clients have criminal past and ex-prisoners experience.

Sometimes the homeless are asking to let them stay for few periods in the Receptions because of the cold weather, lack of food or illness. This situation creates some kind of ethic dilemma for directors of Receptions because to do it means to break the law but not to do means to leave a person in an extraordinary situation without help.

According to the data of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, there were more than 40,000 homeless persons in Ukraine in 2005. This information can only partially clarify the problem, since those numbers include people who attracted attention of the militia officers by their behaviour and the prosecutor’s sanction was obtained to keep the person in that unit. The people whose behaviour did not give any reasons for detention and homeless women make most of the number or larger part of it in comparison to that given above. Militia officers also mention that they arrest people who do vagrancy, mendicancy or begging. But as a rule they do not detain those with signs of severe illnesses, elderly people and women who don’t demonstrate asocial behaviour.

Another big group, which also is included into general number of homeless people in Ukraine, is the immigrants. They are inmates of Receptions but not homeless people. For example, only the third part of those staying in the Kiev Reception during my last visit was the citizens of Ukraine. Another third of them make citizens from other republics of former USSR. The rest of the clients come from abroad, particularly from China, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and African countries, among them lots of transit economic migrants, looking for a way to get Western European countries, as well as refugees.

The homeless people did not exist for Ukrainian social policy – neither were there any legislation nor social services for this group of clients until last time. The important contribution was made by the Parliament hearing in December 2003 on the concept of homeless people or homeless citizens. Before they used the terms BOMZH, an acronym for a vagabond, literally “Without Definite Place of Residence”. Equivalent concepts are used as follows: ‘vagrancy’ and ‘mendicancy’ or ‘go begging’.

In June 2005 a new law “On basics of social welfare of homeless citizen and children without shelter” was passed. The main idea of this law is to create a special system for registration of homeless people, establishing following services: night shelter, centre of reintegration and social hotel. The law came into force from the 1^st of January 2006.

Exercise 5. Give the sight translation of the information into English, think out a title for it and expand on the ideas expressed.

Технологія, за якою працює Центр ресоціалізації для бездомних при об’єднанні громадян „Народна допомога”, розроблена за участі українських та австрійських експертів, ґрунтується на кращих практиках та принципах роботи з бездомними в країнах ЕС із урахуванням української специфіки та адаптована до умов невеликого та середнього міста.

Оскільки поняття „бездомний” включає різні групи людей, за причинами бездомності й втрати житла, сучасна світова політика соціальних програм й послуг цим групам населення передбачає диференційований підхід до вирішення проблеми бездомності.

При врахуванні української специфіки й реалій, такий диференційований підхід було модифіковано, що обумовлено наступними факторами :

• обмежена кількість організацій та структур в Україні, які надають будь-які послуги цій цільовій групі;

• обмежене фінансування даного напрямку соціальної роботи.

Таким чином, при створенні української концепції надання послуг бездомним для вирішення проблеми бездомності, принцип диференційованого підходу було збережено, але у формі, яка б відповідала місцевим реаліям. Так, виникла необхідність згрупування послуг, які надаються даній бездомним, в єдиний комплекс, при урахуванні диференційованого підходу. Як наслідок, розроблено наступну чотирьохступеневу концепцію роботи з бездомними:

• робота в звичному для бездомних середовищі їхнього постійного перебування – робота на вулиці

• робота в стаціонарному закладі без необхідності зворотної дії – в режимі вільного перебування

• робота в стаціонарному закладі з необхідністю зворотної дії – набуття відповідного комплексу обов’язків по відношенню до себе і Центру

• робота в стаціонарному закладі в передреабілітаційний період – періодичний супровід з перебиранням всієї відповідності клієнта за свої дії

Необхідними компонентами, які повинні доповнити дану технологію, є соціальний супровід клієнтів, які проживають за поза межами Центру, та превентивна робота з потенційними бездомними.

Таким чином, політика державних соціальних програм та недержавних послуг бездомним громадянам повинна підходити до вирішення їх проблем диференційовано. Послуги, які надаються бездомним, повинні бути саме комплексними, розрахованими на різні групи бездомних.